


Don't You Worry About a Thing

by suspiciousraidinelf



Category: AKB48, AKB48 & Related Fandoms, NMB48
Genre: Alternate Universe - Demon Hunters, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Blood and Violence, F/F, Gen, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-05-09
Packaged: 2019-10-21 22:35:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17651165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suspiciousraidinelf/pseuds/suspiciousraidinelf
Summary: "She knew how to kill a demon in fifteen different ways with a fucking toothpick if she wanted to. She’s mastered all kinds of different weapons, spoke six different languages, has survived an eight hour stakeout with Nana and her stupid jokes….And yet, she couldn’t manage to show up on time for her own sister’s birthday."In which Jonishi Kei is a good demon hunter, but being a good, older sister is harder.





	1. Part 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Harleymar](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Harleymar).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Jonishi Kei has the worst luck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What was supposed to be a small birthday oneshot became a lot bigger than I had intended (as usual it seems). Actually, my knowledge of NMB is quite limited so I apologize if the personalities of the girls don't match up. Still, I really came to like the setting of this world and hope that it will at the very least be an interesting read. Enjoy!

 

 _You think you spent the best of your life like a puppet on a string_  
_You think you got none of it right and there’s no time left to change_  
_So many memories, they’re all so bittersweet_  
So many avenues back to where we were

 _ _[Don’t you worry about a thing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fb06D9dg8ww)__  
_You’re just lost inside a scream_  
_Don’t blow it, and make your life_  
_Nothing less than you could own it_  
_Make it right, Nothing less than you should be_  
_Don’t you worry about a thing_  
My sister

 

* * *

 

Jonishi Kei considered herself to be a good demon hunter. Maybe not the best, or the brightest, but _good_ (and also the hottest looking, Momoka’s stupid opinions be damned).

As any good (and hot) demon hunter worth their shit knows, there are protocols in place for containing and sealing demon portals that were expected to be followed. Had it been any other day, Kei would be fine with doing the usual extermination routine.

But today was not any other day. And unfortunately for Kei, she just couldn’t catch a break.

The demon was a level four. The gaping portal that it tore through meant the extermination and sealing process was more complex and therefore more time consuming. She couldn’t shortcut the process even if she wanted too.

“Just my fucking luck.”

Kei narrowly dodged a sweeping claw strike to the face as she pressed a hand to her earpiece. “Oi, Momoka, you finished with those seals yet?”

From the other end, she could hear Momoka cursing up a storm, most likely facing as much opposition as Kei was. “I would be, if you would get off my ass and stop asking every 2 seconds!”

Kei rolled her eyes, but was too preoccupied to give a snarky response back.

The demon in front of her was a nasty looking one. It’s withered pale skin stretched tight across a hunched skeletal frame. Bony protrusions jutted out of its back and curled all the way down to the base of its scorpion like tail that swayed to and fro, waiting to gut Kei any chance it got.

The demon towered over her by at least a good 4 feet. Deep red eyes reflected only malicious hatred.

“Pathetic hunter, I’ll enjoy eating your heart from your fleshy corpse.” It’s voice sounded like pieces of glass being scratched against a blackboard. Kei scoffed at the proclamation. Kei jumped back to put some distance between them, but she was mindful of how close she was to the water.

The area that the level four demon and it’s minions had ripped a portal into what was the Osaka North Port Marina. The cold, biting wind of the Osaka Bay caused a shiver to crawl down her spine more so than the demon did.

With trained precision, she pulled out a scroll from her hunter satchel and unfurled it. Nicking her thumb against sharp her teeth, the blood swipe darkened and in its place apparated the curved long blade of her falchion.

The glowing glyphs engraved on the metal pulsed with crackling energy. Kei knew that she needed to keep her distance from the demon’s tail. She’d rather not become skewered human meat. With a flick of her wrist, the blade extended out into a piercing chain held by integrated electro magic magnets.

The demon snarled. It’s sharp teeth bared at the sight of her falchion. With inhuman speed, the demon lunged at her. Kei barreled out of the way and unleashed two successful strikes to its weathered skin. Acidic, black blood oozed onto the pier.

The demon screeched, sending reverberating waves across the pier. Kei’s ears were ringing, but she wasn’t given any reprieve as the demon rushed to continue its onslaught on her.

She reformed the whip back into the sword and narrowly deflected a bite attack. She kicked the demon in the face and went into a defensive stance, a finger on her communicator.

“Momoka!”

But the only response was static. She tried again.

Nothing.

Kei took off into the direction where Momoka was trying to seal the breach. A quiet Momoka was never a good sign.

She double tapped her communicator and switched radio channels to HQ communications. “Rippopo! Gonna need some help over here.”

Riho’s monotone voice cut through the static. “Reinforcements are already inbound. Just hold on a little longer.”

The demon easily gave chase. It’s deep rumble of laughter echoed through the deserted pier. “No one can save you now!”

Before she could react, the demon slammed into her. Kei skidded across the ground, giving her the worst road rash. Her falchion falling just out of her reach. She scrambled forward to grab it, but the demon’s tail wrapped around her ankle and whipped her right into the window of the pier’s nearby restaurant.

The impact was so hard it left a Kei sized dent on one of the walls. She’s pretty sure she cracked a rib.

Small shards had torn the backside of her jacket and cut deep into her skin. As the demon tore into the seaside restaurant, it unleashed a flurry of claw strikes. Kei, who was still seeing double from the hard fall, failed to dodge the strikes effectively. The demon’s claw shredded the left sleeve of her jacket. Ribbons of blood poured out from Kei’s arm.

“Fuckin’ shit!” She rolled away on unsteady legs. The demon cackled at her attempts to get her bearings. He was definitely just messing her around, or at the very least keeping her long enough away from the portal and Momoka. “You’re really starting to piss me off.”

“And what will you do about it, hm?” It was baiting her. Red eyes shined with glee at her injured state.

Kei hurled two smoke bombs on the ground causing them to explode and give her the cover that she desperately needed. She quickly pulled out another weapon scroll. Bloodied hands smeared messy sigils onto the magical parchment.

The demon hissed. It swung its tail wildy, completely thrashing dinner tables and chairs out of the way. “You can’t hide from me. I can smell your blood...and your fear.”

“Smell this, you basic bitch!” The demon turned just in time to see Kei jump from out the smoke and slam two metal javelins into its left side.

The demon let out a screech of pain as it went crashing backwards. The demon scrambled to get its bearing but Kei only dug the the javelins deeper. She ignored the sizzle of her skin as the demon’s blood splattered against her skin and clothes. She pushed deeper until she heard the crack of its bones under the pressure of her force.

But in her focused state, she failed to notice the demon’s tail looming behind her. It took it’s chance to take a reactive swipe, catching Kei in the shoulder.

Kei instinctively pulled back. She held in a scream of pain as she stumbled back into the cover of smoke.

The demon clawed itself back up.  It claws and tail thrashed around the desecrated restaurant in frantic paranoia, but it’s range of movement was limited. “Pathetic hunter, my death will stop nothing! My master’s plans will soon-”

A loud whistle interrupted the demon. It swiveled its head in the direction of the sound. The last thing it saw, as smoke slowly dissipated, was Jonishi Kei giving it the middle finger as she hurled one last javelin right through its head.

The squelching sound of a dead demon was sweet music to Kei’s very tired ears. She took out a minor sealing scroll from her satchel and unfurled it with another easy swipe of blood.

She draped it across the still body of the demon and started the process of containing the it’s body into a ring of sealing. This ring would prevent it’s residual demonic energy seeping into the area, causing to be more susceptible to demon attacks in the future.

It wasn’t going to be perfect, given that sealing wasn’t Kei’s specialty, but it would do until help arrived to clean up the mess she’s inevitably made.

Once she drew the last seal on the floor with her blood,  Kei collapsed. Her exhausted body was no longer able to hold her up. At this point, she was wheezing more than breathing.

The amount of blood she lost was starting to take its toll on her.

As she lay there, She was finally able to take stock of how ruined her favorite leather jacket was. She groaned in annoyance. There was pretty much no way she could patch this up into something salvageable.

God, sometimes, she really hated her job.

About five minutes of debating whether she should bother getting up to check in with HQ and to make sure Momoka was still alive, she heard footsteps approaching. Kei tensed and took a peak over from her hiding position. The tension in her body eased at the sight of a familiar face.  

“Keiichi! You still alive?” Hearing Sayaka’s voice was a relief to Kei, but she made no motion to get up.

“You bastards are late!” Kei called out from her prone position. Sayaka jogged over to her and let out a low whistle.

“You look like shit,” Sayaka said with a toothy grin. She helped prop Kei up against one of the turned over tables.

Kei only glared. “Yeah, well, at least I’m the hottest looking shit here.”

She tilted her head in the direction of the demon that she had murdered.

“Yeah, it’s kind of hard to miss. Sit tight, I’ll start the re-sealing process, just to be extra secure. Nana should be on her way.”

Kei gave a weak thumbs up. “They really don’t pay enough for this shit.”

She watched Sayaka pull out some scrolls of her own with a couple of vials of stored blood. Kei probably should consider carrying her own sealing and blood pack around instead of having to bleed herself dry, but she was never willing to sacrifice the space for it in her satchel. She’d rather have all her weapons at her disposal instead.

“How’s Momoka, by the way?” Kei wasn’t going to bother listening to all the chatter over the comms. It would just give her a headache she didn’t need.

“She’s alive, but looks as bad as you do. Yuuri, Milky, and Akarin are with her now. Oh and she broke her foot, too. Momoka told me to curse you out for leaving her alone to fight a swarm of two level demons and to do the sealing by herself. ”

Kei let out an indignant snort. “She’s the one who was bragging that she could do it before we left HQ. Besides those puny little demons were nothing in comparison to this guy.”

“Maybe you should have pulled some of your old Keiichi charm on it? You could have had an easier time,” said Sayaka with a teasing lighthearted tone as she continued to paint seals around in a circle.

Kei motioned to her chest. “Hey, my charm gets me by most days.”

“But by the looks of it, your boobs could only get you so far today, though.” Another voice cut in. They both turned to see Nana arrive with her usual big medical bag she carried with her. Sayaka only shook her head and laughed as she continued to finish off the seals.

If she wasn’t so tired, Kei would have had the energy to be offended.“I don’t have time for your petty boob jealousy right now. Please heal me so I can go the fuck home.”

Nana pouted, but trudged up to Kei, healing incantations and bandages at the ready. Kei would usually play a long with Nana’s dumb jokes, but she wasn’t in the mood for it.

Today was supposed to be an important day. She shot Nana an apologetic look, though given her often teased resting bitch face, it probably looked more like grimace than anything else. As the magic took effect, Kei felt herself begin to breathe a little easier.

Once done cleaning and dressing her bigger wounds, Nana pulled out a change of clothes, a blanket, and a bottle of orange juice from her medical bag for Kei. “Try not to move so much, I healed most of your ribs and the major cuts but there’s still a lot of bruising and bleeding. Stay here, I still have to go back and help Akarin heal Momoka. You know how fussy she gets when we have to do the healing for her.”

Kei wasn’t usually one to sit still. Most days she tried to at least try to listen to Nana’s instructions, but she couldn’t today.

With Nana heading out, Kei tore off her battered shirt and jacket for the plain black one she received. She made an attempt to get up quickly, but that proved to be a mistake as the world started to spin.

She pitched forward only for two strong arms to catch her. “Woah, Keiichi, what’s the rush?”

There were currently two Sayaka’s standing in front of her. Kei blinked in an attempt to put the Sayaka’s back into one person.  “You know what today is. Or yesterday? What time is it, anyway?”

Sayaka looked confused for a second, before her face lit up in recognition of what Kei was talking about. “It’s about two in the morning.”

Kei cursed. It was way later than she had thought. Kei pulled away from Sayaka, thought Sayaka was reluctant to let her walk on her own.

“Hey, I’m sure she’ll understand, Keiichi.”

Kei shook her head. She was too tired to bother arguing with Sayaka. “I need to head home. I’ll give my report to HQ later. Tell everyone I’m sorry for bailing on clean up duty.”

This time Sayaka didn’t make any attempts to stop her, but Kei could tell her friend wanted to say more on the subject.

She trailed Kei a little ways before stopping. “You did good today, Kei. I know as a hunter, we have to sacrifice a lot. Our duty can take its toll, but you’re one of the good ones.  You’ve helped save Osaka today and countless more times in the past, that’s got to count for something, right?”

* * *

But being a good demon hunter sure as hell didn’t make her a good older sister it seemed.

Her cracked phone screen read 2:45 a.m.

Rei-chan’s birthday had passed her by and all Kei had to show for her late arrival home was some bruised ribs and blood soaked clothes. Sayaka’s usual, lingering words of encouragement did Kei little good to her morale or her conscience at the moment.

“And the worst sister award goes to me.”

She knew how to kill a demon in fifteen different ways with a fucking toothpick if she wanted to. She’s mastered all kinds of different weapons, spoke six different languages, has survived an eight hour stakeout with Nana and her stupid jokes….

And yet she couldn’t manage to show up on time for her own sister’s birthday.

She hung up her satchel and what was left of her tattered leather jacket up on the coat rack, but the heavy weight of guilt remained on her shoulders. Along with her exhaustion, Kei was nothing short of a mess. A hot mess, but a mess all the same.

She padded silently through the apartment. All the lights had been off when she arrived so she could only assume Rei had gone to sleep. Nevertheless, Kei stopped in front of Rei’s door. She lifted her hand to the door knob, but hesitated.

She didn’t even know what she would say to Rei to make up for missing her birthday, _again_.

A simple sorry stopped cutting it three missed birthdays ago. Kei’s apologies were as worthless as her broken promises.

Disappointing her sister was worse than having to face a level six demon while wearing nothing but her underwear.

Ever since their parents passing, Kei had to be the strong one. However, she never knew how to really answer Rei’s questions about the kind of work she did or why she always ended up coming home at late hours of the night with dark bruises and barely healed scars.

Rei probably thought she was doing something illegal or working for the yakuza.

If only it was that mundane.

Kei sighed, but squared her shoulders.  

Even if she had failed to show up on time and was about to wake Rei at this ungodly hour, she still owed it to her sister to at least attempt a make it up to her. “C’mon Kei, you got this. Sayaka is right. It’s just Rei, after all.”

Her sister would probably try to kick her ass, but Kei would do her damnedest to make it up to Rei. No matter the cost.

Kei turned the door knob slowly. She opened the door, but in the darkness of Rei’s room, instead of seeing her sister’s sleeping form, she was greeted by four rapid beeping lights glowed in the dark.

Kei’s eyes widened in recognition.

She slammed the door shut just milliseconds before the blast of the force sent the door and her careening into the wall behind her.

Through ringing ears and hazy vision, Kei cried out for her sister. “Rei! Rei?!”  

She managed to weakly push the door off her and crawled hands and knees towards Rei’s room. Fear clutched at her heart. “I swear Rei if this is some goddamned prank for missing your birthday I’ll-“

As Kei stood on shaky legs, she gasped at the sight before her.  Besides the obvious set up of magical explosions by the wall, Rei’s room was in complete disarray. The stuffing and springs of her bed had been completely torn out. Rei’s desk and bookcase was overturned and her stuffed animals were scattered across the floor, dirty and blood stained. The light pink walls had deep gouges all over.

On the far wall, around the single window in Rei’s room, was a ring of red glyphs. Kei recognized it as the protective ward she had secretly placed in Rei’s room. Except all the glyphs had been made visible and completely nullified. The ward was supposed to be incredibly difficult to bypass and even if it had been, she _should_ have felt it happen.

All Kei felt now was nauseous. Her eyes trailed down to center of the ring. On the window, written in blood, was a single nullified glyph.

The magical word for _detonation_.

Moving like a clumsy newborn, Kei backpedaled out of the room. Fear drummed against her ears. She scrambled around the apartment calling for Rei, hoping against all logic that this was some kind of sick joke. She ripped open closets and overturned their whole apartment for some kind of clue to Rei’s whereabouts.

At one point the landlord banged on their apartment door yelling at about the noise. Kei slammed the door on his face. She didn’t have time for this shit.

When her frantic search turned up futile, Kei hastily pulled out her phone.

With shaky fingers, she dialed Rei’s phone in a last ditch attempt at regaining her composure.

“Please pick up, please pick up, please pick up…”

Kei paced the floor. The ringing of the dial had never been so nerve wracking.

She almost gave up when she heard the other end finally pick up. “Rei! Thank fuck, what the hell-“

There was a deep, dark chuckle. Kei’s heart leapt to her throat.

“I’m sorry Miss Jonishi, but little Rei can’t pick up right now.”  The mocking tone was not lost on Kei. Whoever this was, knew they had the upper hand.

Kei’s hard grip dented her phone a little. “Whoever the fuck you are, if you hurt her I’ll shove your head so far up your ass-”

“Language, Miss Jonishi,” cut in the voice. “After all, you wouldn’t want little Rei to pick up your bad habits.”

Kei heard some shuffling on the line before Rei’s bright voice burst through.“Keiichi! This is the worst birthday surprise ever, you better kick this freak’s ass to make up for-”

Her voice was muffled before she could finish. Kei heard a struggle go on the other end. “Rei!”

The amused voice of the man filtered back through. “Hm, the sisterly resemblance is uncanny, truly.”

Kei was already getting her hunter satchel and heading out the door. “Listen here, you tell me where she is and I promise I won’t rip your spine out from you the moment I see you.”

There was a pause and for a moment Kei regretted letting her anger get the best of her given that Rei was at their mercy. She heard more shuffling and suddenly she heard what she assumed to be Rei’s distant muffled screams. “Stop! Don’t touch her!”

The man came back, but there was a weird distortion of his tone, as if the voice was layered with another. “Miss Jonishi, you’re really not in a place to make threats or demands. You want your sister back unharmed, you’ll do as I say, no questions asked. And don’t even think about contacting any of your little hunter friends. I have my ways to know if you do.”

Every fiber of Kei’s being burned.

She burned to scream, to curse, to kill.

She punched a hole in the nearby wall instead, but the feeling of helplessness didn’t go away. She no time and no options. She didn’t know the truth to the man’s words or if he was even a _man_ to begin with. She was left to scramble for a solution in the dark and her prospects at the moment weren’t looking good.

In short, she was fucked.

Kei’s luck really was the worst. With gritted teeth and hands curled into fists, Jonishi Kei did what she’s rarely ever done in her life.

She conceded.

“Okay...What do you want?”

Kei could practically feel the man smile on the other end. It made her feel sick to her stomach.

“Good. Now, we can get down to business.”

* * *

 

It was 4:30 a.m by the time she arrived to HQ. She had twenty-four hours to get what she needed and then to meet at the rendezvous point that was texted to her.  Getting to Tokyo would still take about four to six hours if she where to go by normal means. At least this would give Kei a couple hours to prep for her meeting with the demon and possibly scout out more information about what she was up against.

She slowly headed inside of HQ. Osaka’s demon hunter HQ was hidden behind the image of a normal “office” building.

The first few floors were actually empty and covered in illusionary magic and seals. Building access was restricted, though even if anyone went in, they would find themselves lost in a series of of never ending halls. To even get inside, a person would have to traverse a maze of floors intentionally put there to confuse and keep regular people out. Kei remembered having to learn to navigate the maze with a blindfold on as part of her hunter initiation.

The real “first” floor was the hunter exclusive bar. And even the initial entrance to the bar was layered with illusions and trap spells it was enough to make even the most persistent of intruders lose their patience.

Kei slipped in with practiced ease.

The actual bar didn’t scream subtle at all with its gaudy cheetah print cushioned seats, bombastic neon lights, and disco ball in the center. It’s weirdly bright pink wallpaper was mostly covered in several picture frames of the girls goofing off, having a good time, or posing with a famous kill. The bar even had a small stage that was reserved for karaoke or the monthly comedy nights.

Kei was just hoping she wouldn’t run into the usual crew. She just needed to get in and out quickly. The elevator up to base was just across the the threshold. Namba girls loved to have fun, so there was usually a few of the older girls passed out in some of the booths, or in Maachun’s case usually on the stage, and that seemed true today as well. Given the time, she didn’t expect anyone else to be around or at least conscious enough to notice her.   

But as she crossed the dance floor, she wasn’t in the clear as she had thought for sitting right at the bar was Airi, Milky, and a what looked like a very drunk, barely awake, Momoka.

And of course, it had to be Momoka who spotted her first.

Life just liked making things hard for Kei.  

“Oi, Keiichi! You bastard!”

Kei had to stop herself from sighing. Nothing could ever be easy could it? She reluctantly approached the bar where Airi had already poured her a hefty glass of beer. Honestly no amount of alcohol could help her right now, but she took the glass with a nod of thanks. Momoka looked like she was trying to get up, but in her drunken and still recovering state she was having a hard time.

Momoka pointed an accusing finger at Kei. “You owe me, fucker. Not only did you bail on me during the sealing, you even had me and Sayanee cover for you in briefing and you know how long that shit takes.”

Kei took a sip of her beer, only half paying attention to Momoka’s rant. She did feel a little bad for making them take on a part of her workload, but her mind could only think about Rei and how different things could have been if Kei had been there to protect her.

Rei’s safety took priority. Stll, she needed to placate Momoka or she’d nag Kei about it endlessly. “I’ll cover your training shifts with the newbies for the next week to make up for it.”

“Make it two weeks and you have to take my next night shift with Nana,” said Momoka. Her tone implied she would accept nothing less than her terms.

Kei grimaced, but shrugged. It’s not like any if will matter in the long run anyway.  “Fine.”

Momaka sloshed her drink to and fro spilling its contents all over the place as she happily yelled about not having to deal with “newbs or old hags” as she put, before completely downing her drink and passing out almost immediately after.

Airi laughed at her antics. Kei could see the tint of red on her cheeks. While not as drunk as Momoka, Airi was at the very least tipsy. Still, she turned to Kei with a big, welcoming smile. Kei hid a frown behind her drink. Regardless of her reason, Kei wasn’t deserving of receiving that sentiment, especially with what she was about to do.

“Keiichi, we thought we wouldn’t see you until later tonight. Sayanee told us you had to head home for something important,” said Airi.

“Yeah, family stuff,” replied Kei. She could feel Milky’s piercing dark eyes on her, internally Kei cursed.

Airi and Momoka wouldn't be a problem. They wouldn’t think twice about her excuses. Milky on the other hand...

She was the one Kei was the most wary of.

After all, the most dangerous demons never looked it.

They looked ordinary, harmless even. They looked so _human_. Maybe that said more about humanity than anything else, regardless, this ability to blend in with the normal population is what made level five and six demons so dangerous.

Milky being a level five demon was always at the back of Kei’s mind. She recalled that fateful night so many years ago when the heartless corpses of her parents lay beneath the form of a grotesque demon. It’s sly smile, too much like Milky’s own, still haunted Kei’s nightmares to this day. Kei’s hand tightened over her cup.

Airi took another heavy gulp of beer. “Oh, is there a reason you came back this early?”

“Had to pick up some stuff from my locker.” Kei left her answers vague. Airi was already on her way to being drunk enough to not care enough to press for details and for that Kei was grateful.  

“What’s so important that you couldn’t wait to pick it up later?” chimed in Milky. But of course, Kei still had another hurdle to bypass. Kei shot a glance Milky’s way. Her “innocent” smile only served to make Kei more nervous.

Kei tried not show any outward irritation or skittishness. Milky was perceptive and if Kei gave her an inch, Milky would take a mile.

“It’s my sister’s birthday present,” was her easy reply.  

Airi piped up at the mention of birthday. “Keiichi, you should have told us it was your sister’s birthday! We all could have chipped in to get her something. Oh! Or thrown her an awesome party!”

Kei brushed her off. “You know I keep my work life separate from my home life.”

Airi was a little miffed at being shot down so quickly, but said nothing more on the matter as she continued to down the rest of her drink.

Kei took one more sip of beer. She was in desperate need of liquid courage, but refrained from drinking anymore, after that. As anxious as she was, her mind needed to stay focused. “Anyway, thanks for the drink. ”

“Leaving already?” asked Milky. Kei continued her path to the elevator.

“Just wanted to get the present and have it ready before Rei wakes up,” said Kei. She hoped her tone sounded more nonchalant than she felt.

Kei punched in her employee code on the elevator keypad, and stepped in as the doors opened. At the very least, she’ll get some reprieve before heading up.

Her sigh of relief was cut short, as Milky’s hand caught the elevator door before it closed. Kei tensed as Milky stepped into the elevator with her.

“Sorry,” she said. Her voice overly sweet and definitely not apologetic at all. “I remembered I had to go up and ask Sayanee something.”

Kei wanted to punch something. Because of course the two people she didn’t want to be here had decided to stay late.

The tension in the elevator was nothing short of suffocating. If Nana hadn’t healed her ribs, Kei would think that they were the reason why it was so hard to breathe.

It was actually rare for her and Milky to be alone like this. Most of the time, there was someone tagging along their group with them. They hadn’t even gone on a mission alone together once in the four years since Milky had joined their merry band of demon hunters. But given Kei's history with demons, many of the hunters knew it was best to keep them far apart from each other. 

As the elevator began its ascent up, Milky’s gaze locked on her. Kei’s mind was racing. Did she know? Would she attack Kei? What did Kei really know about Milky?

Milky’s unusually quiet question cut through the torrent of Kei’s paranoia. “Do you remember when we first met?”

Kei remembered Sayaka coming back after she was marked missing in action for a week. Many of the hunters thought she had finally kicked the bucket, only to come back alive and with a level five demon in tow.

If it hadn’t been for Sayaka stepping in, Keiichi would have cut Milky’s head off on the spot out of reflex. “What about it?”

“Well, the first time I met you, you were so tense and reeked of death incantations.” Kei finally turned to look Milky in the eyes. Her fingers gripped her satchel strap as her thoughts briefly flickered down to her bag’s inventory.

Milky stared back, unblinking. “Kind of like now.”

An oppressive silence followed. Kei mentally weighed her options. She was hoping that she could get in and out without having to engage in a fight. Her chances of escaping out of this alive were slim, but Kei was used to the odds never being in her favor.

She’s been friends with a lot of the hunters since she was young. In a lot of ways, they had become something like family for Kei. But if she had to fight her friends to save Rei, Kei could not hesitate to do so.  

Kei’s fingers twitched. She mentally prepared herself to retaliate the moment Milky made a move.

Before the tension could escalate, however, the elevator dinged and the doors opened to reveal Sayaka and Yuuri standing very close to each other and chatting. Kei’s and Milky’s attention temporarily pulled away from each other.

Kei let out a small, shallow sigh of relief.

Sayaka’s face lit up in happy surprise, and let go of Yuuri’s hand as if she’d been caught doing something inappropriate. Yuuri appeared a annoyed at the interruption. Kei refrained from rolling her eyes at both of them.

“Keiichi! I thought you went home,” said Sayaka.

Milky’s attention had zeroed in at the closeness of Sayaka and Yuuri. Her and Yuuri locked eyes and immediately got into a glare off. All mention of Kei and Milky’s discussion gone from the demon’s mind. Never was Kei more thankful for the love triangle squad getting distracted with their usual bullshit.

Kei got off the elevator. She needed to make a quick exit while she still could.

“I just came back to pick something up from the locker.”

She bypassed Sayaka without so much as a glance. Kei knew that if Sayaka caught wind of her nervousness she’d ask what was wrong. Kei wasn’t sure if she had enough resolve to rebuff her questions or the doe-eyed worried look Sayaka would give her.

Because deep down, Kei desperately wanted to tell her.

To tell her how she failed to protect her sister.

To tell her how much she needed help.

To tell Sayaka, that for the first time since Kei’s parents died, she was afraid.

She pushed back against the feeling and buried it deep within her. There was no turning back now.

“You should have texted me. I could have picked it up for you and dropped it off at your apartment,” said Sayaka, who was trying to hold her attention between the already squabbling teammates in front of her, to Kei who was walking away from them.

“You know me, I’d rather do things myself,” said Kei.

Sayaka wedged herself between Yuuri and Milky in a vain attempt to get them back to amicable terms, but she was still trying to hold a conversation with Kei while doing so. “You don’t always have to, though. Rely on us more often, won’t you?”  

If only that were true, thought Kei.

She didn’t bother with an initial reply.

“Keiichi?” called out Sayaka from behind. Kei imagined Sayaka’s face lined with worry.  She willed herself to keep walking away.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll catch you later.” She disappeared around the corner before Sayaka, Milky, or anyone else, could drill anymore questioning looks into her back. She took hurried steps down winding corridors. The underground base was huge and she had several floors she would need to traverse to get to her destination.

With Milky’s suspicion and Sayaka being prone to sticking her chin in everyone's business, Kei didn’t have a lot of time to get the plan rolling.

She did stop by the locker room and armory on her way. She picked up a communicator and took as many weapon scrolls as she could fit in her already stuffed satchel. She was careful to not rattle the bombs she had acquired from the cache the kidnappers had instructed her to use.

She took one in her hand and examined it. The outer shell of the explosive was lined with demonic sigils. Demon’s blood was dangerous on it’s own, but mixing it together with death incantations was a whole other level.

This was something only a level six demon could pull off without accidentally disintegrating themselves with their own magic. Kei didn’t want to think about a level six demon could do to her sister if she didn’t follow through with his demands.

Most of her locker didn’t have much in the way of possessions, just some extra clothes and a couple of empty scrolls. But, there was one thing that was important to Kei. She had a picture of her and Rei on one of the Kei’s rare days off. The photo was a little worn and crease lines were evident in the places were Kei had folded it for safekeeping in her pockets multiple times before. She gently took the picture in her hands.

She surprised Rei, by coming home early that day. There was a local festival happening nearby and Kei figured it would be nice to take Rei there. They played (and lost) a lot games and ate way too much food and watched the beautiful array of fireworks.

And when Rei pestered Kei for a piggyback ride home, which Kei did begrudgingly, Rei pulled out her phone and snapped a picture to commemorate the small and happy moment together.

It was a good day.

She tucked the photo in her pants pocket. Kei took a deep breath, but it did little to calm her nerves. Kei thought of Rei, alone, with demons ready to tear out her heart and eat it without a second thought. Or worse.

If only Kei had been there. _Should_ have been there, she thought.

Her promise to protect Rei was broken like all the rest of she’s made before.

She clenched her fists until nails broke skin. With blood dripping down her hand, she slammed her locker shut.

A red blinking light barely visible in the dark of Kei’s locker hummed to life as the sigil for _detonation_ was smeared with blood onto Kei’s locker.

“Don’t worry, Rei. I'm coming for you.”

This was a promise she couldn’t afford to break.

_It’s too bad that breaking was all Kei has ever been good at._

* * *

The lights of the elevator flickered violently as an explosion rocked the building.

Funny thing about explosions, they made great distractions.

Kei tried to be careful in her placement of the bombs. She didn’t want to actually hurt anyone if she could help it.

“Fireworks,” the demon had said over the phone. “I want a wonderful explosion of fireworks all over your little hunter hole you call a base.”

Emergency alarms blared as Aina’s voice shouted orders over the speakers.

Kei could only imagine the chaos outside. She ignored every ounce of her conscience telling her to turn back. “In too deep now, Kei,” she muttered to herself.

She shook her head. There was still one more thing the demon had instructed her to do.

The elevator had jolted to a stop five floors before her destination. Since she had to stop by R&D to pick up a couple blood vials, the bombs had detonated before she could arrive at the highest floor.

Blasting open the elevator hatch with a minor spell, Kei hauled herself up.

She was about four floors down. Unfurling a scroll, Kei summoned a grappling hook. The metal beams were just big enough to hook into. With a powerful throw, Kei launched the grappling hook as far as she could send it. Once it was latched securely, Kei began ascending up as fast as she could.

Halfway through her climb up another explosion rocked the building. The rope of the grappling hook swung dangerously. Kei tightened her grip.

“Don’t fall, don’t fall, don’t fall.” The last bombs she placed were finally setting off, but the timing was seriously the worst. As she reached the top of the beam, another explosion shook the building. Kei’s tentative grasp slipped and she scrambled to get a secure hold. In her rush, the rope tangled itself around her as her descent came to a spiraling halt a few feet from the top of the elevator.

“Glad no one is here to see me look like an idiot.”

Roughly untangling herself, she continued her ascent until she reached the right floor. Kei took the grappling hook and wrapped around the nearest beam to use it as a leverage. She took out a combat knife and pushed against the slit of the door. With all her strength, she managed to pry it open enough to get her in.

Kei stepped into the eerily quiet floor. The red emergency lights cast the floor in a dark, red glow as most of the normal office lights had been shut off.

Retracing her mental map of the area, Kei stealthed her way through dark halls to get to an alcove hidden behind several twisting corridors of offices and grand meeting rooms.

Arriving in front a set of two large, red oak doors, Kei stashed her combat knife back into her bag and took out one of the vials of blood she had stolen.

The label on vial was written in archaic magic, but Kei knew it well enough to know it was Riho’s name. She poured the vial of blood all over her hand and smeared the sigil for open onto the door.

The blood, instead of leaving a print on the door, vanished as if it had been absorbed into the red oak and slowly opened to let Kei in. Once she stepped through the doors shut behind her and Kei was left to take stock of the her surroundings before her.

The archive room wasn’t a typical one. The room was not filled with rows of books and tomes, but rather a giant maze of server rooms that stretched, as far as the eye could see. It was just another set of traps and illusions that were set up as a safeguard. “HQ really likes its mazes and illusions.”

She had been in here only twice before and one of those times she’d was drunk for. But the second time was when she helped Riho carry a couple of server equipment in.

Technically she didn’t have access to enter the archives, but Riho had been struggling to carry all those heavy boxes and Kei had offered her help. Riho trusted her enough to accept.

A small whisper of guilt pulled at her for using the trust Riho put in her, against her friends.

Kei had watched Riho write the specific sigils to dispel the illusions from the corner of her eye that day. She hadn’t memorized the sigils for any other reason than to possibly to prank some of the drunk members later, but it seemed that someone had to have known she had this knowledge. What other reason would they target her and her sister for?

But she couldn’t think of the possible leak in HQ now. Everyone would just assume she’d be the leak at this point anyway. As much as Kei loved her friends and wished them no harm, she doubted they would forgive her or bother to hear her out after this.

HQ wouldn’t care if she did this because her sister was in danger. They would tell her to put her duty and loyalty as a hunter first.

Too bad for them, Kei wasn’t Sayaka. Her duty to her sister came first.

She pulled out the second vial of Riho’s blood, and muttered a small apology to her old friend. She broke the vial on the ground and ran her fingers through the same pattern that Riho had done before.

As she traced the last sigil, the air around her shattered into pieces and Kei was left standing in the real archive room. The several rows of server rooms were still present, but the end of the room computer console was visible against the wall.

She dashed to it and took a usb hard drive out from her satchel. The hard drive had been in the bomb cache. The demon had directed her to simply plug it in and let it do its job.

The moment she plugged it into the port, the console screen turned a dark red. Flashes of code scrolled through at an unreadable rate. The console crackled with dark energy that forced Kei to step back. The fluorescent lights flickered as the dark electricity surged throughout the room.

A red screen flashed on the screen and a large icon of dark wings appeared. Kei swore she had seen that icon before, but couldn’t quite place it. She watched as several personal files on several of the hunters flashed across the screen for several minutes. The portable hard drive pinged before the whole console fried in an explosion of sparks.

Kei coughed and waved the smoke away. The hard drive was unharmed, but the same couldn’t be said for the poor console. Kei bit her lip. Hell only knows what the demon would do with all this classified information, but Kei knew it wouldn’t be good.

It was bad enough she had already blown up half the base, but this was a different matter entirely.  

She stuffed the hard drive in her satchel. She’s already made her choice, but damn if it didn’t hurt her conscience to do it. As she silently debated with herself, the vault doors to the archive were blown open. Kei darted behind a couple of servers. Weapon scroll already pulled out from her satchel.

“Shit,” she whispered. With her new electric baton in hand, Kei had to formulate a plan quick. She didn’t have a lot of time left. Most of the hunters would soon figure out that the bombs were just a ruse to the real goal.

She spotted Riho and Fuuko running in. Fuuko’s long naginata drawn out. Her hair tousled as if she has just woken up. Irritation painted on her face. Riho was more skittish. Her eyes darting back and forth.

They stopped a few paces away shy of the console, examining were Kei had drawn the nullification sigils.

Riho rarely spewed curses, but Kei could see how stressed out and shaken she was.

“Looks like you were right, Rippopo,” Kei heard Fuuko say.

Riho pushed her glasses up. The moment the spell broke I was notified. But I didn’t think that they had used my own blood to break it.”

Kei didn’t account for that, but given that Riho was the best at illusions, Kei should have taken more precaution. Nothing she could do about it now, though. She took out her last two smoke bombs and held them ready.

Riho wrung her hands together. Her fingers twisting this way and that as if recounting spells in a nervous habit. “It’s possible who or what ever managed to infiltrate had someone on the inside.”

Fuuko’s eyes narrowed into a glare. “Be careful with what you say, Rippopo.”

“We can’t rule out if one of our own turned,” said Riho, who’s eyes were now looking towards the direction of the console. With hurried steps, she approached the fried console. “We need to call back up. If they stole something from the archive, which I’m pretty sure they did, then we need all hands on deck.”

The moment that Fuuko reached to press her communicator button, Kei lobbed both smoke bombs.

“Shit!” Shouted Fuuko. “The intruder is still here!”

Kei was already upon them. Using the cover of smoke, Kei unleashed two shocking strikes from her baton into a slow-to-react Riho.

Riho crashed against the broken console. Her body spazzing from the surge energy. Kei cringed as Riho collapsed on the ground. Kei hadn’t meant to hit her that hard, but didn’t have time to be guilty about it as Fuuko’s naginata nearly took her head off. Kei tumbled out of the way, but didn’t manage to avoid getting her face cut.

Fuuko swiped the blade upward. The sigils in the blade pulsed and the smoke was swept away by the strike. Fuuko’s eyes landed on Kei. Her expression molded into one of surprise and disbelief. “Keii-”

Kei took advantage of her shock and sent electricity coursing through her baton into Fuuko. The blast sent her flying back into a couple servers. The electric bursts from her baton would only stun them temporarily. She only had a few moments before the whole base would be upon her.

“Sorry, nothing personal,” said Kei as she dashed out of the archives.

Her original escape plan was to take the emergency stairs down to the garage and steal a bike. Now, she’d be lucky if she would even be able to get off this floor unscathed.

Kei veered down the hallway corridor. The archive room was on the forty-eighth floor. Any hopes of getting out without being spotted were slim, but Kei didn’t have any other choice other than to push forward.

She headed back to the elevator door, only to hear several footsteps and voices around the corridor. Kei backpedaled into a nearby storage closet. She heard to pairs of footsteps pass, but the shadow of one lingered at the front of the door. Kei held her breathe. She readied her baton to strike the moment the door opened.

The shadow remained still for a couple seconds before trailing off with the others that had passed.

Kei put the baton down, but the grip on her weapon no less tense. She waited a few tense seconds until she was sure she was in the clear.

She stepped out carefully and instead turned to head into the direction of the nearby offices. The stairwell could leave her too exposed, but she remembered that on this floor there was a conference hall that had a small open balcony. If she moved quickly, she could scale off the side of the building and make her escape. She ducked into another corridor, being careful to stay out of line of sight of the archives.

As she entered into one of the adjoining office rooms, the emergency alarms blared to life once more.  The intercom speakers crackled with a hum. The muffled sound of voices arguing could be heard before Riho’s voice boomed throughout the speakers. “All available hunters, your orders are to find and neutralize Jonishi Kei. I repeat, all available hunters find and neutralize Jonishi Kei.”

There was a jostling sound heard and suddenly Fuuko’s voice filtered through. “Keiichi if you’re listening I’m gonna kick your ass-“

She was promptly cut off.

But the cat was out of the bag now, and Kei didn’t have a moment too lose.

She quickly arrived in front of a hefty metal door. The conference halls were usually reserved for events with visiting hunting units from other parts of Japan visiting or bigwig government officials coming to sniff around their base of operations. But the one on this floor had a balcony that was used mostly to let people go out and have a smoke.The door was password protected, but in true Namba style, that meant that the password was the same that they used for all of conference halls was the same. It was a badly kept secret that the hunters would sometimes use the halls as party rooms. Kei thanked the stars for the rare leniency in security when it came to having a good time.

The doors slid open, but the conference hall was not empty as Kei had hoped it would be. She should have known by now that she wasn’t that lucky.

Standing with her weapon drawn, was Sayaka. She was covered in dust, most likely from the debris of the explosions. Her expression of surprise molded into one of seriousness.

A tense beat of silence followed.

Kei let the doors slide shut behind her. She jammed her baton into the door’s control panel. Static surged through it, blowing out the panel completely. Shutting down the door would only delay people from getting in, but at least it would spare Kei a little more time. She yanked out another weapon scroll and unfurled it in preparation.

Sayaka did not move. She simply pressed against her communicator. Kei quickly nicked her thumb to summon a weapon. Sayaka continued unbothered by what Kei was doing. She taped her communicator and broke the tense silence. “I haven’t found her yet. Keep heading down to the next floor.”

That made Kei pause. The short sickle and chain she had pulled out hung limply in her hands. “What are you doing?”

Sayaka pointed an accusing finger at her. “I should be asking you that, idiot!”

Sayaka paced about the space, as if the situation was more of an inconvenience than the “betrayal” it was supposed to be.

“Milky mentioned you were acting weird, so I went back to check on you. And then the explosions happened and I thought you were hurt or worse. But this?”

Sayaka made an exasperated motion to Kei. “Blowing up the base, stealing classified info, _attacking other hunters_. Kei, what the hell is going on?”

Kei didn’t speak. She wrapped the chain of her Kusarigama around her hand. Her grip tightened on the handle of the sickle.

Sayaka was one of her best friends. They trained together, fought together, and occasionally, drunkenly made out together. Of course, Sayaka would know if something was up. Unlike Kei, she’s always been willing to see the good in people and give them a second chance. Had it been anything else, Kei would have caved into Sayaka’s questions or demands, because that’s the way it’s always been.

Sayaka charged forward, Kei followed without question.

Sayaka brought home a demon, Kei stayed her blade.

Sayaka came knocking at her door at late hours, Kei would let her in.

Always.

Kei clenched her jaw. She could do it. She could drop her weapon and tell Sayaka everything.

 _She could give in_.

The sigils on the hilt of her sickle hummed. The world around slowed. Grim determination etched on her face.

 _But she can’t_.

 _She won’t_.

She took a step forward and unleashed her attack on Sayaka.

_She’d burn every bridge to save her sister._

_TBC..._

* * *

 Higher res [here](https://66.media.tumblr.com/44f11a1d4c80823532696d521b3bba09/tumblr_pnrnksnsm21uszg30o1_1280.png)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A big thank you to the wonderful and amazing @almightyyuna for being my beta and for drawing the character turn around of Keiichi!


	2. Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Jonishi Kei must face the music.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for any grammar/spelling errors.

Kei had always been fascinated by Sayaka’s weapon. She just never thought she’d be on the receiving end of her friend’s blade.

Kei deflected a swipe with her sickle. Using her free hand, she whipped the metal chain’s spike out. Sayaka drew back, narrowly avoiding getting gouged in the stomach. The two circled each other. Kei was a good hunter, but Sayaka was considered the best. As of now, Sayaka was holding back, and Kei was more than willing to take advantage of that.

Sayaka drew her sword up. “Don’t do this, Keiichi. There’s still a chance to back down.”

Kei needed to keep Sayaka at a distance from her. The glyphs on Sayaka’s longsword we’re not ordinary. They were in the shape of shifting musical notes that curved and extended out onto the blade.

Kei had seen first hand what happened when the sword got a taste of blood from whoever was unfortunate to get cut by it. There was a reason why the hunters called her sword the Singing Blade. The best Kei could do was disarm Sayaka and book it the moment she did.

She swung out the chain in two rapid strikes. Sayaka dodged the first strike, but the second strike nicked her arm. Sayaka stumbled back, only managing to catch herself before Kei rushed her. Sayaka pulled up her sword just in time to block Kei’s strike.

Their weapons clashed. Both struggling against the force of the other. Neither willing to bend or back down. Sayaka grit her teeth. “Kei, at least tell me why?”

“Sayaka, do me a favor and shut up,” said Kei as threw up a knee and hit Sayaka in the lower abdomen, causing her to pull back with a heavy grunt. Kei used that moment to wrap the chain around Sayaka’s arm and yank her off balance.

Sayaka face planted, but held onto the chain. She tugged the chain hard enough for it to almost slip out of Kei’s hands. Kei readjusted her hold and yanked the chain back into her grasp. Sayaka dusted herself off, pulling herself by her sword.

Kei swirled the chain, already lining up her next attack. Sayaka went into a defensive stance, one that Kei knew well given how often they spared together. Without hesitating, Kei whipped the end of the chained spike in a wide angle. Sayaka jumped back to avoid the spike, but this time Kei activated the weapon’s sigils, and the chain curved and followed Sayaka.

Sayaka deflected it, but Kei wasn’t going to give her any chance to catch her breath.

She redirected the chain; the magic within the weapon keeping a steady lock on her target. Sayaka darted between Kei and the chain that had a mind of its own. “Keiichi, I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing, but this needs to stop,” she said as she narrowly avoided getting spiked through her chest.

The chain danced in wide arcs, feinting to and fro. Kei’s aim was precise and lethal, the only thing keeping Sayaka at bay. Her eyes focused in on Sayaka’s sword. “Who said I was playing?”

Kei tightened her bloodied hand over the _bind_ sigil on the sickles handle. In that one second that Sayaka glances over to hear her speak, the chain lunged and wrapped around Sayaka’s main sword arm, the spiked tail piercing into her shoulder.

Sayaka yelled in pain as the chain began to constrict her arm. Kei pressed even more pressure into the sigil and pulled, hoping to break Sayaka’s arm and get her to drop the sword. Anger and betrayal burned in Sayaka’s eyes, and Kei pretended that it didn’t sting to see that kind of expression directed at her. She bit the inside of her cheek and remembered herself.

 _Rei needed her_.

Kei pulled harder, the chain digging deeper into Sayaka’s flesh. Sayaka’s screams of pain echoed across the metal walls. Kei flinched at the sound, but said nothing as she and Sayaka continued with their stalemate tug of war.

Sayaka dug her feet in and leveraged her weight against Kei’s attempts to rip her arm off. When Kei pulled back even harder, Sayaka let the momentum pull her in, giving her enough of a leap to give her just enough movement. Sayaka pulled against the bind and swung her sword out. It’s sigils pulsed with bright yellow energy and sliced through the chain like it was wet paper.

The magical enchantment on Kei’s weapon shattered.

There was a pause in which Kei blinked in surprise, and it was a small moment of respite that Sayaka hoped she could utilize.

The glyphs on her sword amplified. She discarded the rest of the chain that had been wrapped around her arm. The sword begged to sing, but Sayaka hesitated. “Keiichi, enough! Please!”

A hesitation that could still work to Kei’s advantage. Kei chucked the sickle at Sayaka’s head. Sayaka ducked down; the sickle embedding itself in the wall behind her. When Sayaka turned back to Kei, Kei was already summoning another weapon.

Kei shouldered the quiver and released a volley of arrows at Sayaka.

Even with her arm bloodied and hurt, Sayaka cut each one down and even managed to catch one in her hand before discarding it. She charged towards Kei. “Fine. We’ll do this the hard way!”

Kei and Sayaka engaged in dance of combat. Kei raining down arrows and Sayaka dodging or striking them down. Kei tried to maneuver her way to the exit, but every time Sayaka would draw too close and she would have to retreat to a safer position. One grazed the side of Sayaka’s cheek, but she didn’t stop her advance. Kei launched five more shots. Sayaka dashed out of the way of two, but three seemingly went right through her. Kei’s eyes widened and turned just in time to see Sayaka appear above her.

“When did you-”

“A trick Milky taught me,” Sayaka yelled as she came down on Kei with her sword.

Kei pulled her bow up to block. A move that proved futile as the sword cut the bow in two and it dug deep into her shoulder. Kei bit back a scream long enough to drop the remains of the bow, grab an arrow from her quiver, and jam it into Sayaka’s already injured thigh. Sayaka hissed in pain as Kei withdrew from her range. She could see the gateway to her escape just over Sayaka’s shoulder. The balcony was just out of reach.

Kei swiped the blood off from her shoulder and took out another scroll. A long metal bo now in her hands. The sigils hummed to life and reinforced the steel of the weapon. She wanted to avoid close combat, but Sayaka wasn’t making it easy because why would she?

Kei swung her staff out in a wide arc. The reinforced end nailed Sayaka right across the jaw with a loud crack. Kei followed up three strikes to her abdomen and an uppercut to her chin.

Sayaka, slightly dazed, turned to retaliate but Kei was already pulling a downward sweep. Sayaka’s feet buckled under her and she tumbled. Kei didn’t waste a second to pull past her.

With blood dribbling down the side of her mouth, Sayaka slammed her sword down on the ground, denting the ground below her. An ominous chorus of oohs and aahs emanated from Sayaka and reverberated across the hall.  

The glyphs on her sword swirled danced in erratic patterns. The air around them shifted as the wave of magic flowed out. A resounding hum burned at Kei’s ears. Her muscles tensed and her movements slowed. Kei let out a string of curses.

Sayaka activated the First Song on her blade.

That meant Sayaka was finally taking this seriously, not that that did any favors for Kei.

Damn Sayaka’s stupidly overpowered sword.

Every move Kei made was a fraction of a second too slow. The persistent hum of the sword’s song fogged Kei’s mind. Those few seconds of confusion was enough to give Sayaka the upper hand as she charged forward.

Kei was too late to react as Sayaka landed a heavy swipe at her back, completely tearing Kei’s satchel and it’s contents inside along with leaving a large gash on her back. Kei staggered forward. Her combat knife, remaining weapon scrolls, and most importantly, the hard drive, spilled out onto Sayaka’s feet.

Sayaka’s eyes narrowed as she she noticed the recognizable dark symbols on the hard drives casing.

“No, don’t-!” Kei begged, but it was too late as Sayaka drove her blade down through the hard drive. The sigils on the sword flowed as magic blasted through it down to the hard drive. Dark magic fizzled out, and so did Kei’s hope of saving her sister.

Sayaka said something, but all Kei could hear was the blood rushing in her ears. The world around her zeroed on the broken drive now crushed under Sayaka’s blade. Kei’s fist clenched and in that moment all she felt-all she knew-was _hatred_.

Kei locked her gaze into Sayaka’s sword and a plan formed in her mind. She couldn’t bring the demon the information he wanted, but that didn’t mean Kei couldn’t bring something even more valuable.

Using the staff, Kei vaulted and swung her bo into a downward strike. Sayaka swatted it away, but was not prepared for the renewed force in Kei’s attacks. Kei forced her muscles to push against the magic, and unleashed another bo strike in retaliation. The strike caught Sayaka off guard and wasn’t able to combat the next two hard hits to the head.

Sayaka jumped back and whistled a song Kei did not recognize. The musical notes on the sword grew bright hot and with a heavy swing in Kei’s direction, Sayaka unleashed a torrent of slashes of electric energy. Kei launched herself upwards, and counted herself lucky as only the tail ends of her hair got singed.

Kei somersaulted to where her combat knife had fallen but didn’t get a chance to pick it up as Sayaka closed the gap. She slammed her sword down onto the knife, splitting it in two, before advancing on Kei with three mid-section aimed blows. Kei parried as best as she could, but Sayaka caught Kei’s side and sliced her open. Kei spun her bo behind her back and then under her arm just in time to block, even when in the back of her mind, she was beginning to panic.

Sayaka rolled out of the way, but bounced back up with an uppercut swipe.  The tip of the sword narrowly missed Kei in the eye, but still managing to catch Kei near the eyebrow.  

Kei hastily wiped the blood out of her vision. She couldn’t dwell on the amount of blood loss. Using her bo leverage her weight, Kei lifted herself to deliver a lunging kick. Sayaka feinted last minute and struck her sword out, landing a critical slash on Kei’s outer thigh. Kei faltered. She lost her footing upon landing, as the picture of her and her sister fell out from the torn pocket.

The fraction of a second that she looked back to where the picture fell, Sayaka let out a war cry giving Kei barely anytime to put her bo up in a weak defense as the Singing Blade connected with the center of Kei’s bo, sending out a blast wave of sonic force.

Kei went careening onto her back. The force of the strike split her bo in two; the magic wards on the weapon fizzled out.

A frazzled Kei scrambled to get up on shaky feet. Her combat knife lay to Sayaka’s feet and her bo was useless without the magical enchantment keeping the Singing Blade from slicing through it like wet paper.

Kei fumbled for a plan, her vision seeing double and doing her no favors. She needed to run, but she would have nothing to trade the demon for Rei’s life.

She couldn’t leave empty handed.

Kei wasn’t a master magic user but she had a few tricks up her sleeve. She tore off one jacket sleeves and with quick fingers used her blood to write sigils on her arm.

“Kei, no!” yelled Sayaka as electricity crackled and smoked around Kei’s arm. She shot a whole beam electric magic right into Sayaka.

Sayaka let out a howl of pain as she dropped to her knees, barely holding on to the sword. Her body twitched and spasmed until eventually she stopped moving. The smell of charring flesh wafted through the air.

Kei was breathing heavy. Her arm was smoking and partially charred from using her own arm to funnel magic through it. She cautiously approached the unmoving Sayaka. Kei carefully reached to pry the sword out of Sayaka’s grasp when Sayaka’s hand shot out and grabbed Kei’s. Kei tried to kick Sayaka away, but her hold on Kei was inhumanely strong.

A low humming tune echoed the room and the blood that coated Sayaka’s blade dripped down the swords glyphs and into a small puddle beneath Sayaka’s feet. Kei’s eyes widened. Sayaka looked up at her, eyes bathed in an eerie orange light.

Kei didn’t have any time to brace herself as sword’s glyphs spring to life fueled by Kei’s blood.

The Second Song was activated.

Immediately, the magical vibrations of the sword hit Kei like a tidal wave. She staggered back, forcibly ripping herself from Sayaka’s grasp.

A cacophony of dark whispers flooded her ears. The blood in her veins boiled as her already open wounds burned. Heavy shakes wracked her body, as Kei buckled to her knees in agony. She bit her tongue to stop from screaming, but all it did was fill her mouth with blood.

Kei collapsed forward, the picture of her and Rei, within reach, staring back at her from where she fell.  She could hear Sayaka breathing as heavy as she was. Sayaka took two tentative steps towards the kneeling Kei, but stopped short a few feet away. “Please stop fighting me, before I have to-please just stop. Whatever the reason, I can help.”

Kei’s eyes never left the picture of her and Rei together. It was what she needed to strengthen her resolve. “You can’t.”

Sayaka held up her sword at Kei. The tip of the blade aimed at the center of Kei’s forehead, but Sayaka could not hand the shaking of her hands.

“You wouldn’t turn your back on us or your duty for no reason!”

Kei spit blood at Sayaka’s direction. She reached out for the photo and stood up on shaky legs. “You can take all your speeches and shove it up your ass, Yamamoto.”

She clutched the picture of her and Rei with bloodied hands. Kei's finger subtly traced the sigil for _burn_ on the back of the picture.

The difference between Sayaka and her was that Sayaka bought the Japanese government’s crap about demon hunting being some sort of sacred duty to their country. A burden that only a select few like herself could carry. Kei scoffed at the idea of demon hunting being something to be proud about. Despite its eccentricities and constant risks, demon hunting was meant to be a paying job like any other.

She needed to pay the bills.

She needed to put food on the table.

She needed to give Rei a comfortable life without worry.  

Kei was never good at anything else but fucking shit up, so being a hunter suited her. Despite the fact that she’d end more roughed up than she liked, the big paycheck satisfied her enough to keep doing it, even if she had to sacrifice her home and social life.

But in the end, all it did was put Rei in the line of danger. She loved her friends and was good at her job, but this “duty” wasn’t worth Rei’s life.

It never would be.

The flames erupted in Kei’s hand as she threw her hand down and formed a wall of fire between her and Sayaka. A scream of pain erupted as the flames overtook Sayaka’s sword hand, the singing blade clattered to the ground, it’s song interrupted, as the wall of fire erupted between them.

Sayaka howled in pain as she was blasted back onto the other side. The residual embers of magic slowly burned what was left of Kei on the photo. What remained was a small tattered section of Rei’s smiling face that Kei let float down onto the floor.  She picked up the sword, but the moment she did her head was bombarded with the screeching sound of nails against chalkboards. The sword clawed at her mind; it was almost enough to get Kei to drop the sword, but instead she dug her nails into the hilt. Despite the pain, Kei couldn’t- _wouldn’t_ -let go. It’s the only leverage she had left to save her sister.

The sword’s screeching lessened for a brief moment, at least enough to let Kei move again. It’s hum slithered through her mind, causing an intense throbbing to course through her. The more she thought of escaping the more the pounding in her head escalated. Kei let out a heavy breath. Rei was out there waiting for her, she wasn’t going to let a stupid overly powered sword take her down with a fucking headache, not after everything that just happened.

However, the moment Kei thought of Rei, the headache subsided, and the scrapping of nails to chalkboard stilled. The blade, if for a moment, was silent.

She didn’t have time to dwell on how weird the Singing Blade was as the wall of flames would only buy her so much time. She straightened her back and marched forward towards the exit. Her resolve to save Rei the only thing keeping her up despite the amount of blood loss.

Kei grabbed the door handle, but stopped short. The sword bombarded her with another round of constant ringing, as if it was begging her to stay. Kei smacked her head a couple times. She refused to look back, because if she did, she wasn’t sure she’d have the capacity to look Sayaka in the eye.

“For what it’s worth, I am sorry, Sayaka.” Kei wasn’t sure if Sayaka could hear her over the roar of flames and Sayaka’s own pained whimpers.

And she really was sorry. Kei was used to making the hard choices, this situation was no different. She just wished she didn’t have to.  

“Keiichi!” she heard Sayaka call out. Without a look back, Kei opened the door and took a running leap off the balcony, sword in hand.

As far as plans went this wasn’t her worse, but it was still pretty stupid. With only the singing blade at her disposal, it would do her little good to help her from falling to her death, given that she didn’t know how to actually use it. With the ground face approaching, Kei was quickly running out of options. But she refused to die this stupidly.

Using the blood from her open wounds, she pressed shaky fingers against her other non charred forearm and scribbled sigils as quickly as she could.

“I really hope this works!”

The magic seared her skin. A crackle of energy coursed through Kei’s body, as she could feel the magic begin to take into effect.

However, the sword sent a shockwave of protest of the foreign blood and magic currently wielding it.  Shaky and poor written sigils never made for effective spells, even less so with magical objects like the blade in her hand. More often than not they blew up on the users face, kind of like now.

“Oh, that’s not good.”

The gravity spell she tried to activate only sent a wave of nausea through her, but she couldn’t just drop the sword, not when this was the only bargaining chip she had left.

She went careening onto the side of the office buildings. Kei couldn’t help let out a yell of surprise as the gravity spell slid her across the big office windows, giving her skid burns across her back. The spell ping ponged her across several other office buildings and into some poor unsuspecting birds.

All that could be heard across the early morning Osaka skies was Kei yelling as she spiraled uncontrollably.  At least she had put some distance between her and HQ, but this wasn’t how she pictured it going at all.

After three minutes of intense vertigo, she felt the spell start to give as her body jolted and tensed with familiar magic fatigue.

“Fucking shit!”

Kei braced for impact, though there was little she could do. She crashed so hard against the side of a nearby brick and mortar building, that dislocated her shoulder as she took off a big chunk off the wall. Another pulse hit her as Kei scraped to try to catch herself, but all of her energy was sapped and she went sailing down into the alleyway below. Landing in an open dumpster with a hard smack, Kei collapsed into a fit of spasms as the sword fell out of her grasp and spell’s effects began to wear off.

She barely managed to pull herself up, before she threw up what little there was in her stomach. She crawled out, or rather, fell out, of the trash and laid next to the bin exhausted and questioning all her life choices.

Kei sighed. “Not your most graceful exit there, Kei.”

After a few minutes of trying to catch her breath, she took stock of the state she was in. Her jacket was torn up and ruined with blood. At this rate she was going to ruin all her jackets. She was bleeding out and she a couple broken and dislocated bones that would make moving difficult.

She began the very slow process of peeling off her shirt and undershirt. Though with only one working arm, it was easier said than done. The cuts Sayaka inflicted continued to burn Kei’s insides. She considered it karma for essentially fucking up Sayaka’s hand with fire of her own.

Kei blinked as her vision started to blur. She was a hair’s breadth away from passing out, but forced her body to stay upright. She tore her shirt into strips with her teeth and bandaged the best she could before putting on her equally as roughed up undershirt. She smacked the side of her face a couple times, hoping to jolt herself awake, even just a little bit. “Can’t pass out. Can’t pass out,” she repeated like a mantra.

When she had finished hastily bandaging what she could, she placed her good arm behind her head and reached for her dislocated shoulder. With a pained grunt, her shoulder popped back into place but she couldn’t help the frustrated tears from falling.

Her shoulders shook with exhaustion and frustration. The dark clouds overhead offered no comfort. The sword raked protests in her head, with whispered voices that sounded too much like Sayaka, which was the last thing Kei wanted to hear.

She hastily wiped away the angry tears and stood up, despite her body screaming at her to stop and sleep for the next ten years. She hobbled out the street to a nearby parking lot, trying to quickly move out of sight of some of the homeless men's overly inquisitive eyes. She brute forced her way into a small car. It was not the stealthiest way but stealth and grace had long since left Kei.

With some quick hot wiring and the engine going, a last ditch plan formed in her mind. She couldn’t give up, not now, not when she’s come this far.

But as Kei glanced at the sword in the passenger seat, she had to quietly admit, that even she has a _breaking_ point.

* * *

With the sun slowly beginning to rise, Kei stumbled out of the car. With time chasing at her heels, Kei was left with few options.

She couldn’t go back to HQ. She couldn’t go back home.

With limping steps and hazing vision, she pushed on in the last place she ever wanted to be.

The temple wasn’t accessible through normal means, as was everything to do with hunting business. The car that she had stolen to get here was abandoned on the side of an unmarked street.

To the normal human and demon eye or eyes there was nothing but a dead end wall in a back alley. But air around was unnaturally cool and had she not been here before Kei would magical wards set up to psychologically force people or otherwise to leave. The sword in Kei’s hand sung warnings, _someone was watching their approach_.

Kei didn’t know how Sayaka put up with such a noisy weapon. She ignored the sword’s singing and hobbled over to the far wall. Much of this alleyway was barren with the exception of a few scattered pieces of trash here and there. But Kei treaded here before and knew this barren alleyway was anything but empty. She marked the familiar sigils with blood, ignoring the swords unnecessary protests, to grant her access through the illusion of a dead end wall to get here.

A long cascading flight of moving stone stairs greeted her. The flight of stairs was definitely a new addition to the temple grounds and honestly they couldn’t have picked a worst time to add them.

“Why is nothing ever easy,” said Kei. Exasperation and exhaustion burned at the back of her eyelids as they fought to stay open. She swore she heard the faint sound of cheery wind chimes as if the sword was laughing at her misery.

“No one asked you-ugh great I’m talking to a sword, get a grip Kei.” The walk up was difficult to say the least, every step was jarring. The constant shifting of steps left Kei dizzy, though that could also have been the blood that was slowing sweeping into her ragtag bandages. The swords annoying musical quips didn’t help the make the climb easier. As Kei dragged herself up on what appeared to be the last step, someone was already waiting there for her.

There, atop the stairs, stood Head Priestess Shiroma Miru in all her scowling glory.

Kei bowed but it was a struggle to do so. “I know I’m not supposed to be here, but I don’t know where else to go.”

Miru didn’t offer any greeting. Her eyes scanned Kei’s shody appearance, before zeroing in on the sword in her hand. “You look like shit.”

Kei could only choke out a tired laugh. “Yeah, I get that a lot.”

A flash of worry passed over Miru’s face before schooling it into a more stoic expression.  “And your bleeding all over my temple.”

Kei glances down to see all the blood that had soaked through the torn strips of cloth. The sword flooded her ears with discordant sounds of disapproval. “Ah, yeah you should get one of the temple trainees to clean that up.”

Miru shook her head, but Kei could see the edge of a smile on her face. There were questions in her gaze, but she did not speak them. Not yet, but Kei was sure she’d get interrogated eventually. Instead Miru motioned for Kei to follow. “Let’s get you cleaned up, before you bleed out on our new stairs.”

Kei did not move, or rather had no strength to move. The sword sent waves of dark beating drums that made Kei’s head pound. The edges of her vision were starting to blur and her resistance to fight it off was waning fast. “I-uh-I might need help.”

Miru let out a snort. “The great and stubborn hunter, Jonishi Kei, asking for help? Well isn’t that rare-”

Miru turned her attention back to Kei just in time to see Kei collapse forward. The sword still in hand. Kei’s vision was closing in. Miru called out her name, but it all sounded distant to her. The beating drums overwhelmed her senses.

“I can’t pass-can’t pass out...out. Please don’t let me pass out.” Kei weakly reached out. Body shaking from blood loss and exhaustion. The sword’s whispered Sayaka like voice wracked her tired mind with another wave of distorted music.

A soft, gentle hand clasped her own. Miru’s voice barely registered at the edge of Kei’s conscious.

“Stay with me, Kei.”

With the last of Kei’s strength, she squeezed Miru’s hand, her voice hoarse with pain. “Save-save Rei...I need to save Rei. _Please._ ”

She wasn’t sure if she was pleading to Miru, her tired body, or to the sword. But the dark wave of unconsciousness did not care for Kei’s pleas. The Singing Blade chimed heavy rolling bells, ominous and powerful, that blew threw all her resistance. Kei’s grasp went limp against Miru’s hand as she spiraled into resounding darkness.

* * *

Kei blinked against the burst of sunlight. She watched the distant form of various seagulls circle overhead. Cool, wet sand curled between her toes and crisp ocean air brushed against her face. The sound of roaring water was deafening and drowned out all of Kei’s thoughts.

Kei clasped her hands against her ears as the sound of crashing waves flooded her eardrums. She squinted her eyes. The beach stretched out for miles without end. With nowhere else to go, Kei walked along the beach, never straying too far or too close to the sea.

She walked and walked and walked till hot sand singed her feet with blisters and the sound of waves left her deaf. The ocean water was a bitter cold that burned at the touch rather than soothed.

Every part of Kei was screaming at her to stop, but she didn’t know how to. Even as her feet gave out under her, something at the back of her mind kept nudging her forward.

Her vision wavered and through the intense heat, a small speck appeared in the distance.

In a small moment of clarity, that speck took form and it was Rei who walked a few paces ahead. Bare feet leaving a trail of footprints that would gradually get swallowed up by the incoming waves.

Kei tried to speak, but the words would wither and die the moment they left her mouth. Wet sand stuck to Kei’s feet like glue. Her legs heavy like lead, were unable to move as fast as she wanted them too. This game of cat and mouse continued for what seemed like an eternity. Everytime Kei thought she had caught up, Rei would slip through her fingers.

Slowly, the ocean water was overtaking the beach. Dark ocean water was now at knee level and Kei’s body was fighting hard to not let the water sweep her away.

With as much force as she could muster, Kei’s heavy tongue managed to formulate words. “Rei, _stop_.”

Kei could not even recognize her own voice, dry and cracked, but her small plea had been enough to make Rei halt. Kei hobbled forward even as the water reached her waist. She reached a hand for Rei’s shoulder. But the moment Kei touched her, sparks ignited from Rei’s body. Kei yelped as she retracted her hand. Her skin burnt as red as the flames erupting from her sister’s body.

The water remained unchanged from the dark fire surrounding Rei. And when she turned to look at Kei, Rei’s eyes were nothing but empty sockets. Blood dripped down her face and into the sea, each droplet poisoning the ocean below. The water no longer a deep blue, but a rich red.

Dark smoke swirled around Rei’s body, and as Kei blinked back against her rising tears, dark smoke shapeshifted into the recognizable hunter weapons, all piercing the body of her sister. Rei’s hands morphed into sharp claws, skin cracking with fire and soot. She dug her claws into Kei’s throat. In her fear and shock, Kei did not resist.

All her fears were coming true before her eyes and Kei had no strength to fight it. “Rei...I’m sorry.”

A guttural, inhuman sound emerged from Rei.

“ **_Where were you Kei?”_ **

Dark claws punctured Kei’s skin. She could not speak and had no strength to move or to fight. Every fear Kei had taken form and all she could muster was a weak gasp.

Her sisters words echoed in the space around them, overpowering all of Kei’s thoughts.

“ **You left me to die** ”

“ **You didn’t care**.”

“ **You never cared**.”

**_Where were you Kei? Where were you Kei? Where were you Kei?Where were you Kei?_ **

Kei choked back a sob. She struggled against her sister’s hold on her. She wanted to tell Rei that none of that was true. That everything she had done was to protect Rei, to give her the good life she deserved. She gathered her strength and weakly thrashed against her sisters hold, but Rei’s dark claws squeezed harder. Kei was seeing spots and gurgling blood, and didn’t know how much more she could take.

 _“Rei, I’m sorry_ . _I failed…”_

But just when she was going to give in, the next thing she knew, Rei let out a piercing scream. Kei’s vision cleared, her throat no longer bleeding, but what she saw left her wide eyed and shaking.

The Singing Blade was rammed right through her sister’s chest. Rei released her grasp, but Kei stood still in horror, because the one who had run the sword through, was her.

Kei stepped in shock not registering that the screaming was no longer coming from her sister, but from herself. The oozing darkness that surrounded her sister fell away and all that was left was a teary eyed, helpless Rei reaching out to her.

Kei extended her own shaky hand towards her sister, but the moment their fingers touched, Rei burst to ashes as a giant wave drowned Kei in its depths.

The Singing Blade’s raspy Sayaka voice buzzed in her mind, her ears, her blood.

 _Wake up, our song is not done_.

Musical notes threaded around and through Kei. The buzzing sound morphed into a loud chorus of various voices, young and old, with Sayaka’s being the loudest.

 _Wake up_ , _Jonishi Kei._

Out of the dark depths, a form took shape in front of her. It took the appearance of a naked Sayaka, but not as she looked now. Rather she looked younger, much like Sayaka had looked before she went MIA for a week, except on her chest was a deep scar. A sharp, glowing crystal was embedded in her chest and emitted a sound like a heartbeat.

She shifted close to where Kei laid bound. The music and voices stilled the closer she approached. She was so close that her face was only a hairbreadth away from Kei’s own.

Kei watched in mesmerized confusion at the scene in front of her. The young Sayaka that stood before her gently cupped Kei’s face pulled her forward, almost as if Sayaka were to kiss her. Kei let herself be pulled in except the moment she did her body lurched from an indescribable pain. Kei looked down to see Sayaka’s other hand plunging that same glowing crystal deep into Kei’s chest.

Even as Kei fought and pushed against Sayaka’s embrace, Sayaka held onto her harder. She pressed her mouth against Kei’s ear, barely above a whisper, but by no means soft.

**_Wake up_** _._

* * *

 Edit: Forgot to add this chapter's awesome art by @almightyyuna on Tumblr. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!


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